A Lady's Dream Come True - Grace Burrowes Page 0,115
would be?”
“Give me fifteen minutes,” Oak said. “Twenty at the most. The wall beside the vanity looks sturdy enough.”
She smacked his bum. “My dream come true is to waken every morning in your arms.”
“I love this dream,” Oak said. “I love you, did I mention that?”
“Only the once.”
He shifted up, covering her and cradling her face against his shoulder. “I love you like I love sunlight on water and rain clouds and shadows. I love you like I love the feel of a brush in my hand and a clean canvas awaiting my paint. I love you like all the colors God ever created. Please say you’ll marry me.”
The moment became sweet and serious as Vera stroked Oak’s back and savored a dream coming true.
“You will teach Alexander to ride,” she said.
“He’s a natural in the saddle. There won’t be much teaching required.”
“And you will encourage Catherine’s art.”
“Until she’s tired of my critiques.”
She smoothed her hand over his muscular backside. “You will sketch nude drawings of me for our mutual diversion.”
He raised himself up and hitched closer. “Will I, Vera? Nude sketches of you?”
“Maybe a tasteful oil, in time. Let’s start slowly and see if we enjoy it.”
“Yes,” he said, kissing her. “Yes, and yes.”
“You’ll help Catherine decide what to do with the paintings of Anna when the time comes?”
“Of course. And I will paint every hillside and cow byre on Merlin Hall land and do a portrait of the Davies sisters if you like.”
In other words, Oak was willing to rusticate at Merlin Hall, to set aside anything but an amateur’s dabbling for Vera’s sake.
“You will have commissions, Oak. I insist on it. Everybody making a sojourn to the seaside spas will come past our door, and we can certainly offer them hospitality if they hire you for their portraits.”
She felt him catch hold of her suggestion, the same way he noticed echoing patterns in wall paper, clouds, and garden flowers.
“That might work.”
“That will work, and we will return to London in spring so you can complete more commissions during the Season, and I can meet the rest of your family. You had mentioned a niece—Tabitha?—I’m sure she and Catherine would enjoy each other’s company, and I am looking very much forward to—”
Oak seized her in a bear hug. “Yes. Yes to all of it, of course, yes, but you have to marry me, Vera. You must, or I will never paint anything worthwhile again.”
She hugged him back. “I will happily, joyously have you for my husband, Oak, but you will also have your art.”
“I will have family and friends to love, which is how the heart makes its art. That creation is more beautiful than any painting ever commissioned. I know that now.”
“I want Sycamore and Ash to stand up with us.”
“So do I, though Kettering will try to manage the whole ceremony.”
They talked quietly of other particulars—where to hold the ceremony; when and how to tell the children and the rest of the Dorning family, until Oak dozed off in Vera’s arms and she in his. When they woke, Vera declared herself famished for want of a vanilla ice, and Oak, ever her servant, made that dream come true—that dream come true, too—after proving to their mutual satisfaction that the wall beside the vanity was, in fact, sturdy enough to meet all amatory challenges.
To My Dear Readers
To my dear readers,
I did wonder how Oak was going to find his happily ever after between Dorset and London. The quiet ones always bear watching. (Vera says they sometimes bear kissing too). I hope you enjoyed this little tale of true love and determination, because there’s more of that in store for Ash Dorning and Della Haddonfield, our next True Gentlemen protagonists. My Heart’s True Delight comes out September 22, 2020 (September 12, 2020, in the webstore). I expect Sycamore’s story will be published in early 2021, but don’t tell him I said that.
A little excerpt from Ash and Della’s opening pages appears below.
If you haven’t caught the most recent Rogues to Riches title, A Duke by Any Other Name is hot off the presses. Althea Wentworth approaches Nathaniel, Duke of Rothhaven, to put in a good word for her with the rural neighbors. He’s adamantly opposed to embroiling himself in neighborhood politics, but that apparently doesn’t preclude enjoying a few of Althea’s kisses… my, my, my.
In November, Constance Wentworth gets her happily ever after, which also requires the cooperation of a grumbly duke (by the end of the book,